Syria: U.N. Notes ‘Shameful Milestone’

By RICK GLADSTONE

August 23, 2013

One million children are now refugees from the conflict raging in Syria, the United Nations reported Friday, calling it a “shameful milestone” in a crisis now well into its third year. Anthony Lake, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, and António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said in a joint statement that half of all refugees forced to flee Syria were children and that 740,000 of those children were younger than 11 years old. The statement also said that more than 7,000 children had been killed in Syria, where the total death toll in the conflict has surpassed 100,000.